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Crystalline CO 2 ‐Based Aliphatic Polycarbonates with Long Alkyl Chains
Author(s) -
Kunze Lena,
Wolfs Jonas,
Verkoyen Patrick,
Frey Holger
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201800558
Subject(s) - comonomer , polymer chemistry , copolymer , propylene carbonate , ether , polymerization , thermal decomposition , differential scanning calorimetry , propylene oxide , materials science , chemistry , ethylene oxide , polymer , organic chemistry , physics , electrode , electrochemistry , thermodynamics
Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is an easily available, renewable carbon source and can be utilized as a comonomer in the catalytic ring‐opening polymerization of epoxides to generate aliphatic polycarbonates. Dodecyl glycidyl ether (DDGE) is copolymerized with CO 2 and propylene oxide (PO) to obtain aliphatic poly(dodecyl glycidyl ether carbonate) and poly(propylene carbonate‐ co ‐dodecyl glycidyl ether carbonate) copolymers, respectively. The polymerization proceeds at 30 ° C and high CO 2 pressure utilizing the established binary catalytic system ( R,R )‐Co(salen)Cl/[PPN]Cl. The copolymers with varying DDGE:PO ratios are characterized via NMR, FT‐IR spectroscopy, and SEC, exhibiting high molecular weights between 11 400 and 37 900 g mol −1 with dispersities ( Ð = M w / M n ) in the range of 1.37–1.61. Copolymers with T g s of −11 ° C or T m s from 5 to 15 ° C and thermal decomposition >200 ° C depending on the comonomer ratio, are obtained as determined by differential scanning calorimetry/TGA.